


Rainshine and Sunshowers

by WET_NOODLES



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/F, Fire Emblem Fates: Small Sad and Gay, Fire Emblem Femslash Week 2016, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Post-Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, Technical Adult-Age Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-11 20:00:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7905694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WET_NOODLES/pseuds/WET_NOODLES
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elise, Sakura, and the boundless sky.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rainshine and Sunshowers

**Author's Note:**

> For the [2016 FE Femslash Week](http://fefemslashweek.tumblr.com/). Prompt: sunshine.

She has maybe two fond memories with Iago in them, and in retrospect, she owes them more to her father. Elise remembers creeping into the tactician's study as a child—she remembers powerful arms scooping her off the ground, and her own delighted squeals as she squirmed in her father's grasp. She remembers beakers cluttering Iago's desk, and her father's booming order: “Well? Show the girl a damn magic trick.”

It was pretty lame, thinking back on it: Iago just poured some oils together and let her watch them separate.

The skies over the Bottomless Canyon churn with tendrils of sunlight and stormclouds. Shafts of light dapple the dew-slick cliff edge where they spread out their blanket. Watching it is a lot like watching that beaker of oil, Elise thinks, even though she doesn't want to ever think about Iago or Father really ever again. So maybe it looks more like one of Camilla's summer shawls. Elise squints. Yeah, she can see it.

Setting down the basket hanging from the crook of her arm, Elise arranges the contents of their picnic spread: tiny teacakes and riceflour dumplings, cold cuts of meat and an oversized bottle of sake. A little something from both their homes.

Bowgrip calluses curl over her shoulder as Sakura joins her. She smells like sunshine and lotion and being next to her makes Elise feel like there's a scrub brush scraping the insides of her chest. She tries to distract herself with chatter.

“Have you ever seen a sun shower?” she says. “Leo says they happen when rainstorms are carried in by a strong wind. I know that's not what's happening here, but it's seriously cool.”

They both look to the sky. The clouds are scalloped like fish scales, churning gray and gold with hair-cracks of lightning swallowed by the stormfront.

“N-no, I haven't. I bet it's beautiful, though.”

Sakura goes silent. Against her better judgment, Elise resumes the game they'd been playing during the fly out.

“Oh, mosquitoes!” she chirps. Sakura's brows knit with confusion.

Elise hasn't come up with a better name for the Say The Things That Annoy You Game, but it came to be as an answer to Sakura's teensy-tiny assertiveness problem.

“Uhhh… here?” says Sakura.

“No, silly! I mean, mosquitoes are another thing I hate.”

The rules: take turns saying at least one thing that annoys you. Even if she doesn't know it, Sakura's a natural.

“Do you get many mosquitoes where you live?” Sakura smiles weakly. “I don't like them either. Umm… I think, the chafing from flying in this skirt.”

“It sucks, right? We need to get you some pants, girl!”

Elise draws her knees up to her chest and takes a thoughtful bite from her dumpling. It's hard to find things to complain about when the situation is pretty much ideal.

“Mm. Some of Leo's dumb lectures actually get pretty annoying,” she says through a mouthful of rice, “but I think I already used that one.”

For a while, Sakura falls quiet. Before Elise can prompt her to take her turn, she speaks up.

“Oh. I've… been meaning to ask you something.” Elise can hear Sakura's throat closing over the words. Sweat chills the skin of Elise's palms. She stuffs her fat stupid mouth with another rice ball to keep from answering with “Yes! I like you a lot!”

“I was wondering, if you—if you and Lord Leo get along well.”

Elise's lungs deflate like someone took a needle to them.

“I just mean, if you guys ever f-fight, or if you talk very often.” Sakura winces, shoulders drawn to her ears, and mumbles, “Sorry, this is awkward.”

“No, not at all!” Elise says too quickly. “Umm, we fight sometimes, I guess? Just normal sibling stuff. But yeah, we get along plenty! We're both still kind of the babies of the group, but I love Leo lots and learn all kinds of stuff from him!”

For a while, Sakura is quiet. Elise realizes why she asked and kind of wants to die.

“Oh, oh! Sakura, I am so sorry! I sounded like such a brat, didn't I?”

Sakura has no right to a smile so sad or so old; Elise feels like an idiot.

“When I was your prisoner, I thought maybe you, maybe you pitied me,” she starts. The fact that she's nervous might sort of break Elise's heart. Sakura continues, “A-and I know that you're my friend now! but I was wondering… maybe… if now you still pity me.”

“Sakura?”

Sakura's eyes meet hers. Maybe she's considering it too, like Elise is considering it, and maybe her lips also feel fuzzy like cotton balls and maybe she wants to throw her guts up too. Sakura picks a leaf from Elise's coils, and the moment passes.

Powerful magic rests dormant at Elise's fingertips. The Fujin Yumi leans against a picnic basket like an old, grizzled veteran playing chaperone to a toddlers' playdate. Elise knows that even as grown women they are entirely too small for the enormity of their roles. Maybe that sake was a good idea, and Elise considers taking a swig.

After a while, she says, “Um,” and then, “Actually, I think you're...” and then, in a whisper drowned by canyon winds, “really… really cool.”

Sakura frowns.

“Sorry?”

“I think you're cool! And super strong, and pretty!” Elise takes the bottle, sniffs, and nearly gags. This isn't going so hot. “I feel really bad about what happened, I can't imagine how hard everything was for you, but I can't pity you, because I admire you! And you're b-brave and wield a legendary bow but you're also so gentle and so smart, and—and I guess I worry sometimes you resent me for everything that's happened, even though you're too nice to say anything, and—”

She stops and braves a swig, and immediately coughs the sake back up. Sakura looks aghast.

“Sorry, I made this really awkward now,” Elise chokes, refusing to meet Sakura's eyes all the while. “This was supposed to be a nice daytrip, and I totally ruined it.”

There's a long silence before Elise feels the sake bottle being gently pried from her hands. She's about to hide in her sleeves when Sakura tips her head back and takes a long, grimacing pull of the stuff. It's the coolest and grittiest thing Elise has ever seen in her life.

“Okay.” Sakura blinks to squeeze the tears out the corners of her eyes, and then rests her hands square on Elise's shoulders. Elise's insides are buzzing and her lips tingling.

“Okay,” Elise answers, but she doesn't know where to go from there.

Just as she starts to lean in, Sakura stammers, “First, I think you're really cool too!”

Abashed, Elise jerks away and stuffs her hands in her lap.

“But I wish you and everyone else wouldn't t-treat me like a porcelain doll!” Sakura continues, flushing bright. “I don't blame you or—or Corrin, and I definitely don't resent any of you, but if we're still playing the game, it annoys me when you f-feel sorry for me!”

It occurs to Elise that they might have both been shouting just now, too loud and too close to a canyon to have a discreet conversation about this. Sakura is looking away, to the shards of grass she's tearing between her fingers. Her voice drops to a whisper.

“Sorry, I just...”

Emboldened by the splash of sake dribbling down her chin, Elise gathers her skirts and crawls on her knees to Sakura, plopping into a hug. Both their skin is kind of cold to the touch, so she gives Sakura a squeeze.

“...It's wrong of me to take this out on you,” Sakura mumbles, curling into herself. “You've been such a good friend to me, even if you don't have to be. I r-really appreciate you taking me out here and… pulling me out of my own head. Even if that's not what you're trying to do.”

It totally wasn't what Elise meant to do, but instead of admitting this—or admitting to herself the real reason for dragging Sakura around so much—she rolls with it.

“I'm really glad you told me anyway,” says Elise. She smushes her cheek against Sakura's head, and then they readjust so that she's resting against her shoulder. They're still sort of awkward like this, but at least not physically uncomfortable. For a while, neither of them says anything.

“...Did you really mean all that?” Sakura says eventually, shifting against Elise's chest. “That I'm brave and… p-pretty?”

Elise wonders if Sakura can feel her heartbeat spike at that, or if she recognizes it for what it is, and recognizes Elise for being too much of a scaredy-cat to do anything about it.

Eventually, she says, “You're cute, I guess. Not as cute as me, though.”

Sakura laughs through her nose, and Elise wonders for not the first time what it'd be like to kiss her. It'd be different than all the ways she's pictured her first kiss going: with a boy, of course, and probably a commoner from the underground. Definitely not Hoshidan. Definitely not a princess. She wonders if Sakura's ever kissed someone before—or even if she's kissed another girl. She feels weird from the little thrill the idea gives her.

“… Waiting for a drink to cool,” Sakura resumes quietly. “And still scalding your tongue.”

“Blech, that's the worst. Umm, definitely falling asleep on your arm, and waking up all numb!”

“H-hey, Elise?”

Elise can hear her swallow; she holds her breath and hopes Sakura doesn't notice.

“Do you mind, maybe…”

Sakura tilts her head and their eyes meet. Elise feels the sliver of her pulse through her fingertips.

“Letting me… um, stay here. Like this. If it doesn't… bother you.”

_You're not pretty, you're beautiful_ , comes the inevitable l'esprit d'escalier meant for two minutes ago. In a gesture that she hopes doesn't come off as creepy, she smooths a thumb over a strand of Sakura's bangs. It's silk-soft, like kitten fur.

“We can stay as long as you want,” she says.

Maybe it won't happen today, or tomorrow. Maybe it won't happen years from now, or maybe it will, and maybe people will be mad, or maybe they won't. Sakura relaxes against her chest, and Elise decides it's fine for now.


End file.
